Caster Semenya (nydailynews.com)
It now appears that Ms. Caster Semenya is indeed a hermaphrodite. She has both female and male sex organs, though she did not know this, as her male organs are not visible. Hermaphrodite or intersex is the birth defect people don’t talk about. A baby is born not completely male or female. The politically correct name is ”disorders of sexual development.”
Two Australian newspapers report that gender tests show the world champion athlete has no ovaries or uterus and internal testes that produce large amounts of testosterone.
Dr. John Park, a urologist at the University of Michigan and a member of the American Urological Association, said a likely scenario is a condition called androgen insensitivity syndrome. The person is genetically male but doesn’t develop external male genitals and appears to be female, or the person can have both male and female physical characteristics.
The disorder is found at birth in the case of abnormal genitals. But often it isn’t diagnosed until puberty. The teen doesn’t menstruate because there is no uterus. In those cases, at birth “they look completely like a girl. There is no ambiguity whatsoever,” Park said.
Dr. Myron Genel
Medical experts say Caster Semenya should be allowed to race as a woman and they cringe at how her case is exploding publicly in the news media. They worry about psychological scars. Unless she took some illicit substance, Semenya is a female with a birth defect, simple as that, said Dr. Myron Genel, a professor emeritus of pediatrics at Yale University and who has special expertise in growth disorders.
It’s no different in a sense than a youngster who is born with a hole in the heart. These are in fact birth defects in an area that a lot of people are uncomfortable with.
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Is this doctor a competitive female athlete…? Nope, didn’t think so. People who are not competitive athletes don’t understand the real issue here. Caster is free to live her life as she pleases. However, genetically, she is a male, with testes that produce testosterone, a performance enhancer. It’s such a good enhancer that taking extra is banned: it increases muscle mass and other things. Estrogen, the female hormone, is a performance reducer. Caster can live her life as a female (despite the little publicized fact that she has, all her life, refused to wear women’s clothing) Is it “fair” that she was born this way? No. Should others have to make the world “fair” for her? No. Nevertheless, she should be racing against males, not other females.
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I agree with Lynn above. Life is not fair. But we scrupulously test athletes for performance enhancing drugs. Unambiguous XX females would be disqualified for having even half the amount of testosterone in their bodies that Caster demonstrated.
“She” is an XY male with no biological female hormones or reproductive organs. Her testosterone levels are three times that of other female athletes. There is no mention that she is producing any estrogen at all.
She should race against males. If this rule is not enforced, coaches and trainers will be scouring the world looking for other runners to develop who have this advantage. And it would make a mockery of the process.
I suspect Caster’s biological problem would have been caught in the US because girls have more regular check-ups. I also suspect her coaches (and parents) knew long before the race. What 18-year old has gone that far, as an athlete, without an single medical exam to determine why they haven’t grown breasts or had a period? Even her principal said she played exclusively with boys and was thought to be a boy because of her style of dress and mannerisms.
I feel for her. I’m a mother of girls. But life isn’t fair. Her medical results should have been kept private and she should have been withdrawn from the 800m to avoid the very problem we’re addressing now.
I hope she gets good psychological help, and gets away from people who care more about her as a source of revenue than someone who was misdiagnosed at childhood and raised as the wrong sex.
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Who cares what you feel or think, really. She’s not a secret male, she’s a genuine intersexual. The hostile judgment of millions small-minded, ignorant readers changes nothing regarding this fact.
The point is that this particular category of intersexuals (AIS females) are in fact permitted under IOC & IAAF guidelines to compete as women. Why? Because in performance there’s no conclusive evidence AIS females benefit FROM their condition! btw, women DO have testosterone – they’re not automatically disqualified “for having even half the amount of testosterone.” (Have you seen her test records already? Or are you making that up, too?) Recall Mary Decker Slaney, a non-intersexual woman on birth control pills (doping) who was disqualified for testosterone in excess of 6:1 T/E levels.
If Caster Semenya (or any female athlete) is within established guidelines, there is no reason she should not compete as a woman – as regulations currently permit. Please inform yourself.
http://www.iaaf.org/mm/Document/imported/36983.pdf
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/09/caster_semenya_is_a_woman_now_what.php
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The World Anti Doping Agency, WADA, considers having 4 times the usual amount of female testosterone a “failed doping test”. The reason it’s so high is because women’s T levels vary, a lot.
Ms Semenya had only 3 times the usual amount. So if there were no other issues, she’d be allowed to run, as would any other girl in that situation.
Now if she has Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, then she’s partly IMMUNE to testosterone. Rather than such high levels giving her an advantage, she needs at least that much to have the same equivalent level as other women.
We have ignorant people protesting about her “advantage”, when anyone who knows anything about the subject knows she may even have a disadvantage. It’s clear that they just feel uncomfortable racing against people a little different from the norm, regardless of their capability. Or, more likely, they’re just ignorant, scared, and too lazy to do any research – cruelty is far easier.
One more thing – Caster Semenya did not lie about her gender test, as the caption to the video states, that was a SA sports official. Leonard Chuene. Please correct that.
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Thanks to whosie and zoe for pointing out the FACTS regarding the REAL IAAF rules, that clearly address Semenya’s alleged condition and specifically allow for it *despite* any possible advantages.
What is interesting to note is how easily these rules are ignored and dismissed by those who refuse to acknowledge anything but their own poorly informed opinions…not just the IAAF rules go out the window, but pretty much any “rule” for what defines a man/woman can be ignored or twisted when someone like Semenya comes along…
“Lynn” says “despite the little publicized fact that she has, all her life, refused to wear women’s clothing…” and “Harriet” says, “…she played exclusively with boys and was thought to be a boy because of her style of dress and mannerisms” as if that is somehow significant, yet I’d bet dollars to donuts that were we talking about a *male* assigned individual who “refused to wear men’s clothing” for his whole life or “was thought to be a [girl] because of [his] style of dress and mannerisms” that would NEVER be taken into account as any measure of his “true” sex…to people like “lynn” and “harriet” how someone looks, acts or thinks sex/gender-wise only matters when it can be used against them.
Harriet also refers to Semenya’s condition as a “biological problem” while at the same time presenting it as an “advantage” so great in and of itself that “coaches and trainers will be scouring the world looking for other runners” with the same “problem”………..?
Seems like the very nature of the condition changes depending on what the point is- when it is supposed to be something abnormal to be weeded out and eliminated, its a “problem” that requires all kinds of counseling and as has been suggested elsewhere, surgery so that she can compete as a MtoF transsexual…but when you want to present it as unfair, suddenly it is not just *not* a “problem”, it is a trait so prized that coaches will “scour the world” looking for others who have it, as if that alone ensures success in athletic competition.
Disingenuous to say the least.
As for the “fairness” complaints- notice that according to both commenters quoted above “life isn’t fair” for the person who is intersexed and they should just accept that and not expect “others… to make the world “fair”…”- but in the case of the other female runners, that is EXACTLY what is being proposed- that they should have people making the world “fair” for *them*…
not because someone broke the *actual* rules or doped or otherwise adopted some extraordinary means to gain an advantage that could be used by anyone…but because of something biological that is totally beyond an individual’s control.
Not only is this attitude hypocritical and mean-spirited towards intersexed athletes, it fairly reeks of misogyny- the message is that women athletes need overseers to protect them, because otherwise they would be victimized, because they are weaker than men…it doesn’t even have to be a man that takes “advantage” of them, even a woman with a birth defect that gives her a couple of masculine characteristics is just too much for these poor, pathetic, weak women to handle.
Once again, the “rules” change at a moment’s notice- “life isn’t fair” is only stated when it can be used against the intersexed person, but when it comes to the non-intersexed majority, nobody is telling *them* “life isn’t fair”…no, in that case we are supposed to make every effort to “make the world fair” for *them*.
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Wow!!!! people are really ignorant. Tina you reallytore a new one in them (you go girl)!!
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